Russia investigates train derailment as terror act 
UGLOVKA, Russia — Investigators on Saturday were considering whether the train derailment that killed at least 26 people was caused by a bomb on the tracks — which would make it Russia's deadliest terrorist strike outside the volatile North Caucasus in years.
The Nevsky Express was carrying hundreds of passengers from Moscow to the northern city of St. Petersburg when it went off rail Friday night. Some officials said Saturday at least 26 people were killed and nearly 100 were injured and hospitalized, though the Prosecutor General's office said the death toll had risen to 30 while 60 people remained in hospital.
Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said another 18 people were still missing from the disaster, which authorities are investigating as an act of terrorism.
Leaders say momentum building on climate change
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — Leaders of the Commonwealth countries called Saturday for a legally binding international agreement on climate change and a global fund with billions of dollars to help poor countries meet its mandates.
The 53-nation meeting was the largest gathering of international leaders before next month's global climate summit in Copenhagen.
The leaders said a deal should be adopted no later than next year and the support money should be available simultaneously, providing up to $10 billion a year starting in 2012.
Bomb pieces steer Russian inquiry toward terror plot
Russian investigators discovered traces of an improvised bomb Saturday on the rail line between Moscow and St. Petersburg, where a train derailment killed at least 26 people in what appeared to be the nation's worst terrorist attack in years outside the volatile North Caucasus.
The device exploded with the force of 15 pounds of TNT as a popular luxury express train, the Nevsky Express, passed over it Friday night in a wooded area about 200 miles northwest of Moscow. The blast threw at least three carriages from the tracks, injuring as many as 100 passengers and leaving a five-foot-deep crater, officials said.
Russian authorities named no immediate suspects or motive. But the investigation was expected to focus on Muslim radicals, who have stepped up attacks this year in a separatist insurgency in the volatile North Caucasus region, including Chechnya and neighboring Ingushetia and Dagestan.
Russia and China Endorse Agency's Rebuke of Iran
WASHINGTON — The United Nations nuclear watchdog demanded Friday that Iran immediately freeze operations at a once secret uranium enrichment plant, a sharp rebuke that bore added weight because it was endorsed by Russia and China.
The governing body of the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, meeting in Vienna, also expressed “serious concern” about potential military aspects of Iran’s nuclear program.
Administration officials held up the statement as a victory for President Obama’s diplomatic efforts to coax both Russia and China to increase the pressure on Iran. They said that they had begun working on a sanctions package, which would be brought before the United Nations Security Council if Iran did not meet the year-end deadline imposed by Mr. Obama to make progress on the issue.
China climate goal faces test of trust
BEIJING (Reuters) - Three little letters could spell big trouble for global climate change negotiations even after China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, announced its first firm goals to curb emissions.
MRV, climate treaty negotiators' shorthand for "measureable, reportable and verifiable," sums up environmentalists' concern now China has taken up an emissions target. How will the world know if it is telling the truth about any emissions reductions?
China stressed on Thursday that its goal of reducing "carbon intensity" by 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels -- reducing the carbon dioxide released to generate each yuan of economic activity -- is a domestic policy, not to be picked over by foreigners as part of a new international pact. [ID:nPEK421]
Iran Censured Over Nuclear Program by UN Watchdog
PARIS — One day after the director general of the United Nations nuclear watchdog castigated Iran for blocking inquiries into its nuclear program, the organization’s governing body voted on Friday to censure the country and demanded that it freeze operations “immediately” at a once-secret uranium enrichment plant. The panel also expressed “serious concern” about potential military aspects of Iran’s nuclear program.
The censure resolution, which passed 25-3, came after Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic energy Agency, declared in unusually blunt language on Thursday that Iran had stonewalled investigators about evidence that the country had worked on nuclear weapons design, and that his efforts to reveal the truth had “effectively reached a dead end.”
Dr. ElBaradei is preparing to leave office next week after 12 years at the head of the agency. His remarks refocused attention on Iran’s suspected work on weapons design at a moment when the West is debating how to respond after Tehran backed away from a commitment it made in early October to temporarily send much of its nuclear fuel abroad.
Sexual Mutilation Alleged in Philippines Massacre
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Authorities provided grim details Friday of the massacre in the southern Philippines that shocked the country this week, among them allegations that women among the 57 people killed may have been sexually mutilated.
Speaking on national television, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said “even the private parts of the women were shot at. It was horrible. It was not done to just one. It was done practically to all the women.”
Ms. Devanadera said that several of the men accused of participating in the slaughter have surrendered and offered to testify. “They are bothered by their conscience because they thought that only the Mangudadatus would be shot,” she said.
Climate debate heats up Caribbean summit
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — An approaching global climate summit has raised the temperature at a typically low-key meeting of leaders from Britain's former colonial empire.
The Commonwealth heads of government, meeting in the Caribbean this week, are discussing climate change just before a major summit on the issue in Copenhagen. Leaders of the 53-nation group, whose profile has waned in recent years, say they now have a chance to influence the global debate.
"What we can do is to raise our voices politically," said Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago, which is hosting the biennial meeting. "We feel can have some effect in influencing the discussions in Denmark."
Momentum grows for Copenhagen climate deal
PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - World leaders on Friday rallied to a diplomatic offensive to forge a U.N. climate deal in Copenhagen next month and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said an agreement was "within reach".
Ban, and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen who will host the December 7-18 U.N. climate talks, hailed what they portrayed as a growing international momentum toward a pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming.
"Our common goal is to achieve a firm foundation for a legally binding climate treaty as early as possible in 2010. I am confident that we are on track to do this," Ban told a summit of Commonwealth leaders in Trinidad and Tobago.
UK's Brown to Push Bank Bailout Plan At Summit
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LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would lobby for support for his plan to make banks pay for any future bailout at a Commonwealth summit this week.
He also wants Commonwealth leaders meeting in Trinidad and Tobago from Friday to give a push to climate change negotiations and to send a signal that Zimbabwe could be re-admitted to the 53-nation organization if it goes through with reforms.
